04 January 2016

Meal Planning Monday

Now that the festivities have come to an end and we return to some form of routine, the buffet dinners and sweet treats are being replaced with properly planned dinners. Much to everyone's disappointment!

Here's what's on the menu this week:

Monday's dish is a family favourite. It's a standard macaroni cheese with mustard, Cajun spices, paprika and a few other bits thrown in too, along with chicken pieces for protein. I usually make a very large dish so a few portions are frozen for another time or popped in the fridge and reheated at work by the Mr for his lunch.

Tuesday and Wednesday's meals will only be eaten by the Mr as the Mini Mes are out for the evenings and I'm concentrating on a low calorie meal replacement plan for the first 6 weeks of the year.

Thursday's dinner is using up some ingredients I have leftover in the cupboard and fridge.

For Friday and Saturday I'm trying two new recipes from Nigella that I discovered in my latest cookbook purchase. These sound delicious (and the pictures look lovely) so I thought it would be a nice way to end the first week of a new year. The book was a bargain too!

Ooh I wouldn't be disappointed, those sound like fabulous meals! I'm terrible at planning my cooking, I really should try harder. I hope your meal replacement plan goes well. I was considering doing one of those but have decided to just cut out processed food for the time being but I'll be really interested to read how you get on with yours because it's something I might well do in the future.xx

I love the sound of that chicken and wild rice one pot. That sounds like the perfect meal for a winter's night. Warming, filling and comforting. I also think your haddock fish cakes sound yummy. I do love a fish cake. Good luck with your low calorie meal replacement plan. Hugs Lucy xxxx

Wow, that is an amazing price. I got the book for Christmas because I loved the tv show recipes, but there's quite a few on my list to do.

Good luck with the diet. I only did it properly for 5 days last time because it just doesn't fit in with my family life (and I have to watch low cal diets with my medication), but I lost 11lb that week, and then did it for 2 meals a day and a normal healthy meal which worked well too. I stopped over Christmas, but as you know back on it.

It's so good to meal plan. I really need to get back into this. Your menu sounds delicious. At least once every fortnight I cook a huge batch of pesto pasta and keep bit for lunch the next day. It's so cheap and lasts a few meals xx

I'm Emma - an adventure seeking mama of two, and newlywed, based in the Midlands. With a passion for travel I'm always planning the next trip, whether that's to visit a popular attraction, explore a local town or sink our toes into foreign sands.